Enzo Maresca has revealed Luis Enrique admitted Paris Saint-Germain were fortunate to beat Manchester City, as the Blues boss insisted his side are closing the gap on the Champions League winners.
City were left facing a mountain to climb after falling 3-0 behind during a damaging first half at the Etihad.
They responded after the interval, causing PSG considerable problems as they attempted to rescue the contest.
But their fightback proved insufficient, with the visitors eventually winning 4-2 on the night to claim all three points.
Despite that defeat, Maresca delivered an upbeat assessment and disclosed the exchange with Enrique that reinforced his belief City can compete with the European champions.
The City manager pointed to the psychological impact of conceding early goals against opponents whose aggressive approach leaves little room for error.
"My feeling is we are there, we are close," he said.
"The reason why we struggle first half is we concede two goals and you know you are already difficult against them and then think 'Oh my god we are 2-0 down so it is even more difficult.'
"Luis at the end told me they had been quite lucky during the 95 minutes but we lost, we can move on."
Maresca's optimism came despite a first-half collapse that handed PSG control and left City needing a dramatic change in fortunes.
Their response offered encouragement, although goals from Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Vitinha before the break ultimately proved decisive.
Enrique subsequently confirmed his assessment publicly, acknowledging that City's willingness to gamble after half-time had made life uncomfortable for his players.
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The PSG manager felt his team deserved their commanding advantage, having successfully worked their way through City's press.
However, he was far less satisfied with the contrast between the two halves.
"Exciting, incredible, played at a high tempo," he said. "That's exactly what happened.
"We were able to overcome their pressing in the first half and deserved to be 3-0 up at half-time but then I don't like it when we get two halves of football that are so different.
"I know that the opponents in the second half took a lot of risk and really went for it and created a huge amount of problems for us."
Enrique also suggested PSG had finally enjoyed some fortune after feeling it had deserted them during their opening French league matches.
"The team that lost today perhaps were a bit unlucky and I spoke to [assistant] Raphael Pol at half-time and said all the luck that we didn't have in the first games of the French league, we got all of it today," he admitted.
"It balanced out a bit in the second half today when the luck was on our side. I think the luck was on our side this evening."
City are next in action against Ipswich Town on Saturday (3pm).
PSG, meanwhile, return against Strasbourg that same day (4:15pm).
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